Falling Skies
by queenofthetear
Summary: After the 1st Wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th Wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. The dawn of the 5th Wave approaches, all must run to survive.
1. The Last Wanderer

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**The Last Wanderer**


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

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The world is a large place when you realise that you are alone. Where there is nothing for you to stand by. No one there to comfort you, no one there to talk to. No one there at all. Just emptiness. That's what the world is like. Emptiness. No one home, apart from Them. You see, Earth did have humanity, and Earth was thriving with life. But, They came with no warning. They just arrived, no deals, no greetings. Nothing. The earth couldn't cope. They destroyed us. And by us, I mean humanity. Aliens are stupid. Well, I'm not talking about flying saucers and little green men. That is too far-fetched for them. They were smart, not stupid. They were so far ahead of us that even the smartest human had no idea what was happening. Stupid humans. Why did we create the aliens in our head?

It wasn't like how we had imagined it in our minds. The ones that were made up when it hit that the glittering lights in the sky were suns just like ours, where there must have been planets like ours spinning around with its own moon. You know the ones that are written to always attack us, created as human aliens. They are literally everywhere these human aliens. The aliens have flying saucers that swoop down from the sky and destroy New York, places in California and London. But, usually I would say it's New York. Or, they would march across the countryside in a formation of huge mechanical machines that create havoc in their wake, with ray guns, always ray guns. And every time it happens, the world sets aside its differences to sort out the problem and defeat the human aliens. Job done, everyone goes home happy. If you watched 'Independence Day' then that it was people think happen.

What a load of bullshit.

We had no chance. I bet They knew about our little human aliens that were imagined. And I bet they laughed there way sky high knowing how stupid we looked, if they could? I don't know if They had a sense of humour. I should ask. If they did, they must have laughed at us like we do when we watch a baby grab its food and smothers it over their face. _Oh look, humanity is so cute that it doesn't know what it is doing. Isn't it cute?_

I will tell you now, forget everything you know about little green men, flying saucers, mechanical machines that always have a death ray. Those battles that happen in the sky, with the tanks and fighter jets, forget. Don't even go there with the victory, because that never happened. Not even close.

You want to know the truth; humanity was screwed when we first laid eyes on Them.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

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The world is a cold place, I have discovered. Take away what makes it Earth, and you are left with something that hurts. A cold barren stretch of land that has no hope. Hope. That's what I need. At least a sign to show that I'm not the last human left to rot on this God forsaken piece of junk, then my hope can be restored. But I doubt They want to me to know. I have seen them kill humanity all around me. Yet, They can't have killed everyone, there must have been people that survived the 4th Wave. It could happen, though, eventually. And then I think that is exactly what They want me to think. Place me in a world that is all alone.

It's like the dinosaurs all over again. Make way for the new species, because Earth is too small to cater for everyone.

Being the last human on Earth may be quite an overstatement; one of the last makes more sense. But, I'm alone – and likely to stay alone- until the 4th Wave rolls away and brings the new devastation. Okay, I'm not entirely alone; a small beagle follows me around the place. I mean that I haven't seen another human in over five months. No contact with my own species, but who would I trust. A stranger. I wouldn't even know if it was the enemy.

I talk, yes, well, I try to talk a little a day to make sure that my voice doesn't fade out. A childish nightmare I had when I was younger, yet I still spoke very little. Isn't that stupid. The dog, which has no name, perks up a bit when I speak to it, crocking its head, and its ears turning in the direction of my voice. Comforting for a lonely teenage girl. Yes, I'm a girl. If in case you were wondering. And yes, a reaction like that is comforting; it stops me from losing my mind. Like when I have one of them three-in-the-morning, oh-my-God-I'm-screwed thoughts, the dog is there to help me as I close my eyes and drown in fear so intense that I can't even remind myself to breathe. Its big milky brown eyes whisper, _Emer, go back to sleep. I'm not ready for your shit yet._

That's my name, Emer.

Comes from an old Irish legend where there was, funnily enough, a women called Emer. She was the some guy's, called Cú Chulainn, lover and was blessed with the "six gifts of womanhood", which are beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, needlework, wisdom, and chastity. What a load of bollocks that makes. Who wants all those gifts? Fine, I would take beauty, wisdom and a gentle voice, but really, needlework. Is that even important? And chastity, come on. I think Cú Chulainn needs it more than her. Sneaky bastard.

She isn't much, the Emer girl. She just waits for Cú Chulainn to come back and marry her. That is not who I want to aspire too. The warrior-woman Scáthach seems to be who I want to be. A kick-butting, no excuses person that tries and helps when she can. I may have got all that wrong, but you can't blame, there's no internet to look up this sort of information anymore. I'll just casually rewrite legends here in my cold tent. But, you think the origin of my name is funny, my cousin Cassie seems to hate hers. Cassie is short for, not Cassandra, or Cassidy. No, she was called Cassiopeia, the constellation, the queen tied to her chair in the northern sky, who was beautiful but vain, placed in the heavens by Poseidon as punishment for her boasting. Or so she put it. Cassie was my American cousin who hated being called Cassiopeia. "_Just Cassie,_" she would scream down the phone every time I used her full name. It would drive her insane, and I would giggle away knowing that she would start laughing as soon as I did. We were so close. I was only a few months older, but that didn't matter. We were twin's worlds apart. It's sad to think that she may well be dead. I regretted not calling her the day before the 1st Wave hit. I had wanted to, but a chocolate ice cream was beckoning me, and by the time I had finished, there was no time to. I feel so lonely that my other half has gone. It didn't matter how far apart we were, we were still so close.

When I was fully into a mature twelve year old, and she a fledging of that age, we booked a family holiday to visit them in America - the happy days before the Arrival. Her birthday had just passed and Cassie was given a telescope from her father. She was very proud of this new telescope, so proud that she was buzzing when she showed me. Later, on a crisp, clear evening, her dad, Cassie and I set up the telescope in the backyard to look at the sky. She was determined to show me her constellation.

"See how it lights up the like a _W_?" she whispered beside me as I squinted through the lens at five stars burning over fifty light-years away. I could feel her breathe against my check, warm and moist in the cool, dry autumn air. The real Cassiopeia was so far away, but mine was so close.

Each night, I look for Cassiopeia in the bright clear sky. To try and escape only temporarily to pre-Arrival Emer, where her only problems were trying to get good results in her A-levels. The only good thing in this new cold world, my qualifications didn't matter! If only they had a class on alien kick-ass fighting, or even better survival. That's what they should be. I don't need to know that when the Fool in _King Lear_ says to Lear "I am a fool, you are nothing," he is, in actual fact, subverting authority of the natural world. Where in hell is that going to help me? Some random alien is not going to come up to me and ask that question, he'll want to blow my brains out instead. But, that was important to pre-Arrival Emer. Always worrying about the impending exams that would decide her future. At times I want to scream at her, force her into getting ready for what was about to happen. Tell her to stop worrying about which university she was going to go to, because she wasn't going. They took that away from her, away from me. Yet, she always somehow knew that she wasn't really going. Like a nagging pain in the back of the head that just wouldn't go away. It was as if pre-Arrival Emer knew what was going to happen before she even knew it herself. Yeah, well that planned out perfect. Pre-Arrival Emer should have paid attention more to the nagging pain then worrying about university. She should have paid more attention to life instead of worrying about what people thought about her. Because she knew she looked ordinary, ordinary in every way. And ordinary she knew she would stay.

Cassiopeia had her major crush, a boy she once told me about. A _jock_ is the terms she used, and when she plucked up the courage, Cassiopeia would ask about the babies. For she was a pretty girl, no doubt about it. Blond long hair that curled at the right places, a splash of freckles across her nose, deep blue eyes that twinkled like her constellation. But, you see Cassie was a shy girl, we both were. A cute boy she could only wish to have, and me, well, who would have wanted me? Long bushy brown hair that could not be worked with and eyes that seemed to scare everyone away.

I couldn't keep blaming pre-Arrival Emer for her nature, she never knew it would happen, and that was the blessing she got. I miss her, the other Emer, she had it all planned. She was going places, seeing things. Jeez, she even knew what her children would be called. And I missed her because of that. New-Emer, well she would scare the living daylights out of her, because new-Emer, me, was a cold-blooded killer.


End file.
